


Cathodic Protection

by weatherflonium



Series: Metall/u/rgy [15]
Category: Metall/u/rgy
Genre: F/F, Gen, Overworking, Suppressed Angst, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 21:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6130001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatherflonium/pseuds/weatherflonium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zinc is Iron's only friend, and both of them know it. Sometimes Iron wonders why Zinc's always around to help.</p><p>For anon who requested Iron.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cathodic Protection

Three quick, hard knocks on her office door jolted Iron awake. She stared down at the mess of scratchily-written notes and well-thumbed memos that lay sprawled across her desk, groaned, and quickly swept them all into a drawer. She tugged at her shirt, straightened her collar, and shuffled back to sit upright. Three more knocks, and a call of “I’m coming in.” It was Zinc’s voice, of course. Iron glanced at the clock on the far side of her office (9 PM), took a deep breath, and shook her head back and forth.

“It’s open.” Iron called, hoping Zinc didn’t hear the half-yawn at the end. As Iron had expected, Zinc burst into the room, walking (almost running) to the front of her desk and glaring accusingly down at her. “Did you need something?”

“You’ve been here since three in the morning.” As Iron opened her mouth to respond, Zinc silenced her with a glare. “Yesterday. And no, I’m not missing something, unless you’ve found a way to slip past the entrance desk.” Iron scowled, biting the inside of her cheek. So much for her ‘discreet’ security staff.

“Fine. I’ll just finish-”

Zinc walked behind Iron and pulled her chair out from her desk. “You’re always going to ‘just finish’. There’s a million things for you to finish, and you can finish them just as well tomorrow morning. And I mean ‘morning’ as in ‘after sunrise’.”

Iron raised her hands in mock surrender, and slowly stood out of the chair. She felt a familiar rush of dizziness, and tried not to stagger in front of Zinc. She wouldn’t live that down. She kept her eye on Zinc out of the corner of her eye; no visible reaction. Good. No need to have Zinc be even more of a worrywart. Iron crossed the office, picked up her coat, and slowly slipped it on. Zinc crossed and exited the office, standing just outside. “Go on ahead.”

Zinc shook her head. “You’re not driving. My car’s outside, I’ll pick you up at a _reasonable_ time tomorrow.” Iron rolled her eyes.

“I’ll call a cab tomorrow. You don’t need to trouble yourself over me.” Zinc muttered something under her breath. Iron wasn’t about to ask what. “What?”

“It’s fine. I’m not doing anything important in the morning.” Zinc smiled. “What kind of friend am I if I can’t even give you a lift?”

That seemed to be the end of that. They walked out of the office in silence, Iron lagging slightly behind Zinc. She saw now that Zinc was wearing a rather stylish evening dress; a far cry from her usual semi-casual wear around the office. “Zinc, why’re you here?”

“Security told me you hadn’t left. I though I had to come get you.” There was a dull edge to Zinc’s voice, even if she was hiding it. Iron wasn’t that tired yet.

“Why the dress?”

Zinc didn’t answer. Iron didn’t pry.

* * *

 

Zinc watched Iron slowly walk into her mansion, then finally pulled a bit away from the house. She opened up her phone and quickly slid over to 'new messages'.

 **Copper**  
_I have to go home now, sorry._  
_I’ll ride with Platinum and Cobalt._  
_If I stay much later I’ll never hear the end of it from E._  
_Or Mum, not sure which would be worse._  
_I hope your friend is better!_  
_Are you free Tuesday?_  
_We can finish dinner._  
_If you want._  
_Maybe you should bring your friend?_

Zinc sighed, her head slumping. Not surprising, really; she’d hated to run out on dinner, but she was Iron’s only friend. As much as she hated to think of the look on Copper’s face when Zinc had gotten the call from the security desk, at least Copper wouldn’t end up in the hospital on her own. Cobalt and Platinum had seemed nice, anyway. She exhaled slowly as she typed out a response.

 **Zinc**  
_Tuesday is fine.  
I’m really sorry._

She didn’t even know what to think about introducing Iron to Copper. It brought to mind questions she didn’t want to ask about herself and brilliant, introverted redheads.

_I don’t know if Iron’d be up for dinner._

She paused, wondering how to close the message.

_I’ll see you then._

**Author's Note:**

> Iron's suffering is contagious, it seems. This turned out much darker than I'd originally intended.
> 
> The title comes from the chemical technique of the same name, which protects one metal from corrosion by causing another metal to be corroded in its stead. Two of the most common setups for this are iron as the protected metal (cathode) and zinc as the corroded metal (anode); this is a common technique in shipbuilding and construction, and is the reason a lot of street lamps have that geometric pattern on the outside: the iron pole has been dipped in zinc, which resists corrosion itself and then will dissolve in lieu of the iron if the coating is damaged.
> 
> Of course, applying this to personal relationships is not much fun for anyone. Unlike Lead/Tin, where the alloying serves as passive protection against undesireable effects, looking after Iron takes a bit out of Zinc as well. (And poor Copper.)


End file.
